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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26023297">The Sky</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunder_and_stars/pseuds/thunder_and_stars'>thunder_and_stars</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dimension 20 (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Campaign 05: A Crown of Candy, Character Study, Death, Episode: c05e09 A Crown of Candy: Safe Harbor, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:34:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,126</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26023297</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunder_and_stars/pseuds/thunder_and_stars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby had always been a part of the sky.<br/>Jet had always been a fighter.<br/>It was simple. And then, it wasn't.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jet Rocks &amp; Ruby Rocks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Sky</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Spoilers for episode 9.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Ruby had always loved the sky. It was her home, and it felt so natural, so easy, so be there, to simply soar. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The feeling in her chest when she flew through the air didn’t fade when she caught an arrow through her neck on the Sucrosi Road, nor when the battle on the milky sea left her drowning when she had once been hanging from the mast, free and flying and ready to fight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was a part of the sky, and she believed that with all her heart. She had magic, and her sister was a fighter, but she was an acrobat. It was who she was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even after the fight in the cathedral, when they lost the chancellor she had never quite liked, when something inside Liam splintered and he turned to darkness, she was still one with the sky, and she belonged to the air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then they got home, and it felt so strange to be home, after everything, and so much had changed, but it was still her and Jet, and now Liam, sneaking off to Dulcington in the dark of night. It felt normal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then Jet was gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ruby’s heart shattered as the light in the locket went out, and she felt hollow and empty without her sister. She didn’t have the time to grieve, not really, because they had to move.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They had a funeral for Jet, but it wasn’t enough, because nothing was ever going to make up for losing her sister, his other half. She climbed to the crow’s nest of the boat and flung her consciousness into Yak, because she couldn’t bear to be in her body, the one that looked just like her sister, and she couldn’t deal with the thoughts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Yak soared through the sky, wind buffeting the wings of the candy eagle, but it felt wrong.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ruby was the one who was part of the sky, so why was Jet there?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jet should be there, next to her, as she always had been, with her mischief and her blade and her will to fight through anything. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She gave Liam the other half of the locket, Jet’s half, because it wouldn’t work on its own. It needed another person, needed its other half. It was nothing on its own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was nothing on her own. She needed her sister, but her sister was gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jet had died, and Ruby had died along with her, because she was nothing, absolutely nothing, without her other half.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shouldn’t have run. Her sister was dying, and she ran, because she had some vague notion that she could find help, but she couldn’t, she would never be able to, and she left her dying sister and her cousin alone with the attackers, because Jet told her to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She couldn’t find it in her to argue with her sister at the time, so she had gone, and it wasn’t fair that Jet had died. It should be her in the sky, not Jet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She can no longer even think of the past, of the nights they snuck of to Dulcington, because they were children and they wanted to know what it was like to be normal children, so they had gone off to find out. All the memories of nighttime escapes and lessons sneaking away from Lapin are tainted, because Lapin is dead now, and she wishes they had been kinder to him, but beyond anything, Jet is gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jet is with her in all her memories, because they were twins, and in the castle, they didn’t have other friends, just each other, so they did everything together. She can’t remember ever being without Jet before, and it hurts to even try.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There is a jagged wound torn through her, the loss of her sister, her twin, her best friend, and the edges will never heal, and all the reminders will never stop hurting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She is in the air, and all she can think about is Jet watching her to make sure she doesn’t fall and calls of reassurance and cheers when she succeeds, but Jet is gone, and she is still here, and she is not whole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She is nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She is soaring, and there is Jet, cheering her on, but Jet is dead, in the sky where Ruby belonged, not Jet, never Jet, and then Ruby is falling, and she doesn’t care. Her only reason to live is to avenge her sister.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She is nothing without her other half, and she is the one who belongs in the sky, but the sky is not her home now, just as Dulcington is no longer filled with fond memories. They are all just reminders of Jet, and that she is dead, and Ruby is hollow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She thinks she understands why Liam is a war guy now, after losing Preston. She doesn’t know who she is without Jet, just that she wants to destroy the people who took her sister from her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She is part of the sky still, because Jet is a part of the sky, and because she can never truly lose who she is, but it is different, and the feeling she used to get when she soared is gone now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jet was never meant to be in the sky. She was meant to be on the battlefield, right in the thick of it all, slashing away with her blade, like Theo and their father, and Ruby was meant to be in the air and afar, with Liam, with their bows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ruby still soars, but she feels like a husk of who she once was, her chest empty and cold, and Jet is buried in the hill, soul in the sky. When Ruby soars, she feels like she can almost reach her sister, but she never can, and she curses the sky for taking her sister, for taking the one part of herself she had always felt confident in and turning it icy and hollow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Someone killed her other half. She is going to destroy them, because she is nothing without Jet, and all that nothingness is filled with rage and a terrifying desire for revenge that threatens to claim her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There has always been a piece of her that belonged to the sky. Before, it was the acrobat in her, the one who was always ready to fly, because she knew Jet would catch her if she ever fell. Then, Jet was gone, and the part that was in the sky was her sister, and the half of her that was suddenly gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Someday, Ruby will belong entirely to the sky once again, and perhaps, then, she will see her sister again. Until then, she soars, feeling empty, and she waits to see Jet again.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! </p><p>Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated, but thanks for reading regardless.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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